The area of advice for the care of new babies is fraught with difficulty, not in the advice itself, but in the danger of offending the parents' who 'know' their child. It is quite true, of course, the main carer of any baby will notice changes that no one else would but there are truths about child care that are the same for every child.

Babies respond well to routine, get the onto routine feeding as quickly as you can, this will allow your baby to have a routine bedtime and restore some normality to your sleep pattern - and importantly if you are involved in a relationship, to give some time to your partner - who will be suffering from lack of sleep, and lack of attention from you. Your partner has had to deal with the main focus of your life suddenly not being him or her but your new child - that is a massive change in any relationship. If the parents/carers are happy then the child will be happy.

Once you ahve achieved routine feeding - there are plenty of places you can get advice on how to do that - your baby will now need to learn when it is time for sleep. Put the child in his or her sleeping place, whether this is a cot, a moses basket or simply the bottom drawer of your chest (it often happens!).

After the last feed of teh day give them a nice long cuddle, and a chat then a little kiss (you can inprovise!) and lay them down, tuck them in nicely, maybe stroke their heads and walk out of the room. This can be really tough, you may not want to leave the room, to leave your child alone, but it will be good in the long run.

If the child cries do not go in immediately to see what's wrong. You know what's wrong they want to cuddle you! If the crying continues wait, then after an interval, maybe 10 minutes go in to see them, do not pick the child up, this will be seen as a reward for crying, simply speak softly to them while checking they are still tucked in and haven't kicked off the covers, stroke their head again and leave.

Now it gets tougher, if they continue to cry you have to wait a bit longer, maybe 15 minutes (be strong!). Then go back in and do exactly the same routine as before, this is comforting for your baby but not rewarding. Once again leave and extend the time to 20 minutes.

If the child sleeps then wakes and cries, do not pick them up, a stroke and comforting words are enough, leave the room quickly.

This routine will upset your sleep pattern but it is short term!

I have three children and this worked well for the second two - when we had our first child we knew nothing and had more time - we learnt quickly! I still remember well (18 years later) the week we tried this routine, it was hard to allow our little boy to cry but at the end of the week, just four or maybe five days, our baby was sleeping through the night and it transformed our lives.